Sweet potatoes are a Thanksgiving staple, but that doesn't mean you have to stick to the classic marshmallow-topped bake. We love turning the vegetable into a savory soup, warming side, or even a cream pie for dessert. Here are Thanksgiving recipes for sweet potatoes from rustic Coal-Roasted Sweet Potatoes With Maple-Chile Butter, to potluck-friendly Roasted Hot Honey Sweet Potato Salad, to this elegant Sweet Potato Soufflé with Molasses Sauce. Read on for sweet potato sides and desserts for your Thanksgiving spread.
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Coal-Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Maple-Chile Butter
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Take your sweet potatoes up a notch by roasting them whole directly on hot coals, giving them a lightly smoked and deeply roasted flavor. A whipped compound butter made of sherry vinegar, parsley, and maple syrup add acidic, earthy, and savory notes. Top the sweet potatoes with toasted pecans to bring in some needed crunch. It’s a great side dish for any occasion.
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Roasted Hot Honey Sweet Potato Salad
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This sweet potato salad makes a colorful, satisfying side dish. Seasoning the potatoes with smoked paprika creates a sweet and savory balance while the hot honey dressing adds a touch of tangy heat. Homemade pickled red onions, crunchy toasted pecans, and fresh parsley round the dish out.
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Tempered Curry-Ginger Sweet Potatoes
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Sam Fore's side dish is hearty, filling, and packed with the flavors of his mother’s Sri Lankan cooking — onion, ginger, and chile flakes.
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Owamni Sweet Potatoes with Maple-Chile Crisp
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Maple sugar lends complex sweetness to chef Sean Sherman's mouthwatering chile crisp, which he drizzles over roasted sweet potatoes.
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Savory Glazed Sweet Potatoes with Sesame Seeds
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With brown sugar, vinegar, and liquid aminos, these sweet potatoes are the best balance of savory and sweet.
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Sweet Potato Pie
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The sweet potato pie is seasoned with cinnamon, allspice, and freshly grated nutmeg, but it's the bourbon-pecan praline topping poured on top that gives this pie a New Orleans accent and sets it apart. The pie shell, sweet potatoes, and praline sauce can be made in advance, making this pie work for holiday baking when time is tight.
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Sweet Potato Yeast Rolls
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Ajowan seeds offer an herbal bite reminiscent of thyme and cumin in these dinner rolls for 30.
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Sweet Potato Pie with Honeycrisp-Kabocha Salad
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With more eggs than a traditional pumpkin pie, this pie-version is much richer and matches the creamy texture of the accompanying licorice ice cream.
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Candied Sweet Potatoes with Bourbon
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Sweet potatoes are baked in a sweet, buttery sauce with hints of maple syrup and warm autumn spices in this satisfying side. The syrup thickens and becomes sticky as it rests; sprinkling on grated orange zest at the end balances the sweetness of the dish. These candied sweet potatoes are perfect for Thanksgiving, and also pair well with roast pork loin, ham, or chicken. For a more uniform dish, try finding sweet potatoes that are similarly shaped and sized.
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Sweet Potato Pavé
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The key to this crispy dish is super thin layers of sweet potato, easiest achieved by (carefully!) using a mandoline.
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Sweet Potato Honey Beer Pie
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Dark beer, honey, and spices including turmeric, ginger, and cardamom give this pie rich, complex flavors. Cookbook author Nik Sharma loves sweet potatoes, especially in this pie. He suggests roasting sweet potatoes, reducing the beer, and preparing the pie crust, the day before you serve it. The next day, blind bake the pie crust, prepare the sweet potato custard, and bake the pie.
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Smoky Sweet Potatoes with Chorizo Butter
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Smoky and spicy, cured Spanish chorizo infuses melted butter with its rich color and flavor, balancing the natural sweetness of these tender roasted sweet potatoes.
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Purple Sweet Potato Pie with Coconut and Five-Spice
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This purple sweet potato pie by Baltimore baker Krystal Mack is seasoned with five-spice seasoning and topped with toasted oats, pecans, and coconut for a vivid presentation and deep flavors that make it a showstopper on any holiday table.
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Cinnamon-Spiced Candied Sweet Potatoes
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These spiced sweet potatoes are the perfect stand-in for candied yams with toasted marshmallows. For an elegant effect, add Justin Chapple's toasted meringue topping.
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Sweet Potato–Coconut Soup with Thai Curry
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A trio of coconut — coconut oil, coconut milk, and toasted coconut flakes — makes its way into this fragrant and lovely take on a classic Thanksgiving soup from cookbook author Melissa Clark.
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Sweet Potato Sticky Buns with Toasted Marshmallow
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These show-stopping sticky buns from of L.A.'s All Day Baby are filled with ginger-studded sweet potato and spiced with cardamom and vanilla. Rolled into a buttery dough that bakes up light and pillowy, like giant cinnamon rolls, there is a little bit of sweet potato filling in every bite. Glazed with butterscotch and crowned with toasted marshmallow, these buns make a show-stopping addition to any brunch. Serve freshly baked and topped for best results.
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Sweet Potato Casserole
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Sweet potatoes grow in abundance in Alabama, where sculptor Sandi Stevens' family eats them year-round. This casserole is a Stevens favorite: silky pureed sweet potatoes topped with a sweet and crunchy pecan-cornflake topping. If you don't have pecans or cornflakes on hand, Stevens says the topping can be made with whatever nut or cereal is in the cupboard.
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Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes with Toasted Marshmallows
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In this clever version of candied sweet potatoes with marshmallows, Grace Parisi mashes sweet potatoes with deeply flavorful grade B maple syrup and butter before stuffing them back into their skins and baking them a second time.
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Sweet Potato Soufflé
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These mashed sweet potatoes are topped with Gruyere then baked so that the cheese forms a nutty-flavored crust.
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Sweet Potatoes with Apple Butter
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You only need four ingredients for this recipe—sweet potatoes, unsalted butter, apple butter, and salt.
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Vanilla Bean-Whipped Sweet Potatoes
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Everyone at your holiday table will fall for this combination of creamy pureed potato and fragrant vanilla.
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Sweet Potato Soufflé with Molasses Sauce
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This dish is a French take on an American classic. You can serve it without the molasses sauce for a lighter and less sweet version.
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Sweet Potato Gratin with Chile-Spiced Pecans
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Jose Garces says this dish best exemplifies his Thanksgiving menu: traditional at its core but with unexpected Latin accents. The gratin is silky and sweet, topped with gooey marshmallows and delightfully crunchy pecans flavored with chile powder.
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Sweet-Potato Meringue Pie
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This dish looks like a pumpkin pie, but the filling is actually made with sweet potato.
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Sweet Potato and Goat Cheese Gratin
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Goat cheese fans will love the tang that the cheese adds to this sweet and luscious gratin, with its crispy topping.
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